The present invention relates to a soot blower for the removal of solid deposits collected on the surfaces of chambers through which gases flow. Such chambers can be provided in heat exchangers, reaction vessels or the like.
Soot blowers of the type under consideration are known. Such soot blowers are either stationarily installed in the chamber or space, through which gases flow, or are periodically inserted into that chamber for cleaning the interior of that chamber. The removal of deposits collected on the walls forming the chamber is carried out by means of a gas or steam-forming blowing medium, for example nitrogen or water steam which is fed through the soot blower and is discharged therefrom through bores or nozzles which spread the streams of blowing medium onto the inner side of the wall forming the chamber or onto the surfaces of the tubes or tube bundle arranged in that chamber. Deposits collected on the surfaces of the tubes of the heat exchanger or the like are here particles loosely positioned on the tube surfaces and which stick to the walls or surfaces to form a cake thereupon.
Known soot blowers have, however, some disadvantages. One of known soot blowers is a rotary tubular blower which is rigidly installed in the chamber of the reaction vessel or the heat exchanger and is therefore subjected to high temperatures of gases flowing through the chamber; this soot blower is therefore subject to erosion and corrosion because solids which are contained in flowing gases have corrosive constituents. This causes a premature damage and thus replacement of the soot blower by a new one, which leads to a stoppage of the operation.
In the case of the soot blower periodically inserted into the chamber of the reaction vessel or the heat exchanger the problem is that during the introduction and removal of the streams of the blowing medium onto and from the surfaces of the tube assembly of the heat exchanger those streams strike against not only the surfaces to be cleaned but also against all the surfaces of the tubes which leads to intensive wear. Further disadvantages of the known soot blower are a relatively large space required therefor in the chamber and the problem of sealing of the chamber due to periodical insertions and removals of the soot blower from the chamber.
Particularly if the soot blower operates in the chamber exposed to high pressures of gases the sealing problem becomes enormous because rotating and movement-translating elements of the soot blower must be sealed against high pressure gases. Even with a penetration of a small quantity of high pressure gases into the soot blower the latter must be replaced by a new one which leads to considerable costs in the removal of deposits from the surfaces of the tubes of the heat exchanger.